By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The only American Jaguar in Orissa’s Nandankanan Zoo has died of complications related to old age, officials said Thursday.
“The male animal was 21 years and nine months old. Normally a Jaguar lives 11-12 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity. The Jaguar in our zoo lived a long life before its death,” zoo director A.K. Patnaik told IANS.
The unnamed Jaguar was brought to Nandankanan from Kolkata’s Alipur Zoo in 1999, he added.
“The animal died Wednesday. We were giving the animal tonics and providing intensive care for the past few weeks as it had started growing weak. The post mortem report also confirmed that the animal had no disease,” Patnaik said.
“We had one more Jaguar that died six years ago. We will try to get a pair from Delhi Zoo soon. We are in talks with them for the past one year,” Patnaik said.
Jaguars, one of the four big cats along with the tiger, lion and leopard in the Panthera genus, are the largest and most powerful felines found in the Western Hemisphere.